Telescoping trays are convenient devices that can be used to form a storage enclosure and to store items. Items can be placed into a tray by a consumer who wishes to store and organize the items. Items can also be placed in a tray by a manufacturer, after which the tray is closed to form an enclosure, such that a retailer need only open the tray to display and present the items stored in the tray for sale.
In a conventional design, a telescoping tray storage enclosure is formed of two pieces, a top tray and a bottom tray. Each of the top and bottom trays are parallelepipeds, each having one open face. The open face of the top tray is placed over the open face of the bottom tray, and the two trays are matingly moved together such that a box is formed. In such a conventional design, as shown in exaggerated format in FIG. 1, the length and width of the top tray are slightly longer and wider than the length and width of the bottom tray such that, when the trays are placed together, the top tray entirely overlies and encompasses the bottom tray, and the edges of the top tray surround and cover the edges of the bottom tray.
In the conventional design, two parts of different sizes are required. Thus, it requires two different tools to manufacture the two parts, two different sets of inventory, etc. If one part becomes damaged, the specific part must be replaced, which could lead to confusion.